Lebanon, Israel announce talks on disputed borders

BEIRUT AFP, 1 Oct, 2020 - Lebanon and Israel said Thursday they will hold US-brokered negotiations on their disputed land and maritime borders, in what Washington hailed as a “historic” agreement between two sides technically still at war.   

The United States will act as a facilitator during the UN-backed talks to be held in the southern Lebanon border town of Naqoura, Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told a news conference in Beirut, without giving a date. US envoy David Schenker said the negotiations would start in the week of October 12.   

In Israel, Energy Minister Youval Steinitz said in a statement that there would be “direct negotiations”.   
According to Israel, bilateral negotiations with Lebanon have been suspended since 1994.   
But an adviser to Berri, Ali Hamdan, said the talks would be “indirect”.   

 “They will sit in the same room, but there will be no direct conversation between both sides. It will rather be via the UN team,” he told AFP. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed what he called a “historic” agreement between the two countries to discuss their disputed borders, a “result of nearly three years of intense diplomatic engagement”.